My 11 week lab puppy loves chewing any piece of wood she can find, is this bad?
If it is what can I do to stop the habit.
I have bought a rubber chew, a rope chew and even a squeaking plastic carrot!!
There would appear to be nothing better than a piece of starter wood for the fire!

Thanks

Gus

I'm no expert but i do have a 4 month old lab puppy who has systematically destroyed my dining table and chairs.  Nothing would stop her - chewy toys, my arm, tried it all.  Became very frustrated but you know, almost overnight, it just stopped!

I was told it's just one of those things and you must try your best to distract her and use nothing other than a firm NO! 

She has recently discovered that the bottom of the shed tastes quite good though and i do worry about splinters in her tongue, but am just going to ride this one out too.

Good luck!

S

I would have thought its one of those not recommended but virtually unavoidable things in puppies.

Mine has only just started doing it, since the arrival of adult teeth and it has to be wood.  It started with the dining room door frame (and only that room for some reason!) and has now progressed to the back door step.

I am actually just back in from spraying the doorstep with Bitter Spray - I didn't bother before as its outside so seemed rather pointless especially with the weather, but I've just been outside on poo patrol and noticed that today's poos are 70% poo and 30% wood shavings, with some sharp wood bits being as long as two centimetres long and a couple of millimetres thick.  I've decided that this can't be good and it may be worth my while spraying the step every morning until she forgets about doing it, as this seems to have worked with the dining room door.

Mine has done it from 9 weeks and shows no sign of slowing up now he is 6 months and teething. Sometimes distracting works but often it doesn't - spray works but only for a short time and it's pretty foul for humans too! - so we're just living with it and hoping he'll grow out of it before the kitchen table disintegrates...

Do all your pups eat the wood or just chew it up, my previous dogs have all just enjoyed shredding and leaving a pile for me to clean up, but Obi (6 months) actually eats some, seems to come out okay and I obviously stop him if I see him.....

I don't think I'd ever recommend chewing wood but when we had a wood burner in the kitchen a couple of mine were always chewing the firewood.  We were never short of kindling for the morning. :D

A old gamekeeper once told me that if your dog was a wood chewer to give it apple wood to chew, after tasting the sweetest of the apple wood other wood loses its attraction.

Never had one chew wood but he swore by it

Our lap puppy Alfie is six months old now and he had only previously shown an interest in the plaster on our kitchen walls but on Thursday I came back from work (after being out for 3 hours) and he had chewed the leg of our kitchen stool and the corner of one of the cupboards both of which are wood.  The kitchen has only been in 8 weeks so I was not particularly impressed.  I had sprayed it every morning since it had been fitted with Bitter Spray but had come to the end of the bottle on Thursday.  Went to get some on my way home but came home to a chewed mess!!   Murphy's Law!!!   

why not try chilli sauce the hotter the better, go and ask a chip shop or kebab shop.. i am sure they will let you have some, and brush it on with a paint brush...

mustard works well too.

I had this problem with all my three, found that the stuff from the pet shop to prevent this was pretty useless, I resorted to using Oil of Cloves painted on the attractive area and found this quite successful. Beware though they will be on the look out for a new place to chew!